Some must-see video here. CNN's Rich Sanchez stood up for his news organization on air today, against Fox "News" after they ran an add today in the Washington Post alleging that CNN didn't cover Glenn Beck's political rally last week in D.C.

After slamming Fox by showing clips of CNN's extensive (some might say gratuitous, frankly) coverage, and even a clip showing Bill O'Reilly on Fox discussing the fact that CNN covered the event, Sanchez went for the jugular:

Here's the facts. We did cover the event. What we didn't do is promote the event.

Just like when thousands marched on Washington to protest the war in Iraq, we covered it as well. Probably less than we covered this event. [ed note: no kidding!] But we didn't promote it. ... Bottom line is, we do cover the news, and we did extensively cover this event.

We didn't promote the event. That's not what real news organizations are supposed to do. We covered the event. I would invite you to look into that distinction, between those two words: "promote" and "cover".

"Cover" is kind of like a fair and balanced way of doing things. Ya get it? You might want to look into that.
...
Let me address the Fox News network now, perhaps the most current way that I can, by quoting someone who recently used a very pithy phrase. Two words. That's all I need. "You lie!"

Right. Sigh.
This is not a victory, you guys.
Fox just totally conned Sanchez into re-airing a full 5:13 more minutes of full coverage of their Stupid-Con, Fiction-Fest, Loony-Baloney, 9/12 hooey.

I'm sure Fox is thrilled. Great investment when a full page ad in the Washington Post yields five times it's return in eyeballs exposed by sucking up all the oxygen on every other network. And then(FREE BONUS!) watch it subsequently trickle-piss it's way down to the best blogs on the internet at no additional charge. (Great new model for the new media paradigm, everyone.)

And all it took were ginormous sums of money and a little twist of Sanchez' little-bitty ego-testicles - apparently it's just that easy to get your main competetor to air your bullshit propaganda in full.

Of that entire 6:42 minute CNN "rebuttal" only 1:20 of it was Sanchez actually telling Fox off. (Tho' yes, 'twould be Heaven most Pure to see Obama / Congress buck up and shut them up for even half that long.)

I see this as another way Dems are self-defeating, another noteworthy broken spoke in our collective failure to fight this teabagger bullshit effectively. Something I don't see being discussed anywhere: why are we using our hard-won microphones to do nothing but amplify their crazy?
And what are some alternatives?

As for the Dems, I am no longer surprised by their willful intent to forfeit. What I wonder now, mostly, is how much longer they'll mount the effort to pretend to try?

The 2 party country our Farfurthers gave their wealth and sacred honor to defend - the socialist ball-less ball-licking billionaires, and the riot-inciting, race-bating paranoid fringe billionaires.

(Brad: very much looking forward to your Acorn piece. I am most sincerely devastated by this disgusting turn of human tide. The other day in Westwood I was mortified to see a graffitied street sign spray-painted on an city cable box with even, stenciled font across the bottom that read: "ACORN FREE PROSTITUTION ZONE" or something to that effect. Holy...! Does FreedomWorks have goons in the OC that have ACORN stencils at the ready for this shit and drive to liberal university enclaves at night prepared to deface city property with their corporate propaganda?
My heart is braking for what Acorn is facing.)

Has CNN exposed the background of the "players" in the ACORN video and the subsequent "players" who gave them the media vehicle to megaphone it?

Media Matters (not CNN/Rick Sanchez):

Still, the story at this point really has a lot more to do with Fox News and conservative media activism than with ACORN. The undercover videos first appeared on BigGovernment.com, founded by Andrew Breitbart, a protégé of Matt Drudge and a conservative with a long record of highly partisan and inflammatory statements. Giles, daughter of conservative blogger Doug Giles, attended the National Journalism Center in Washington, one of the many right-wing institutions conservatives have established to flood the field with young, motivated, and rabidly partisan "reporters." For his part, O'Keefe has been a far-right activist since college.

Breitbart has developed a direct line to Glenn Beck, and so it wasn't long before the videos were being presented breathlessly on his TV and radio programs. This week, following his 9/12 rally, Beck escalated the attacks over ACORN.

Including false claims such as:

- the conservative pimp wasn't thrown out of any offices
- an ACORN employee murdered her husband

For CNN to call out Fox News for lies is the equivalent of the pot calling the kettle black.

Fox,CNN and their ilk are engaged in a far more effective method of news reporting than merely lying about it.

Not reporting news which does not fit their agenda allows them to ignore facts without mentioning them. This is more useful and comfortable for them than the outright lie because,when one lies,there is always the possibility of being discovered and called out on it which means that the liar then has to concoct an explanation as to why the lie occurred.

It blows my mind how many people think Fox News is real news. MSNBC leans a bit left, Fox News leans way to the right. CNN seems to be the closest to political neutral largely because, in my opinion, they seem to want to avoid in depth reporting if it steps on the toes of what Fox is "promoting". Fox is fascist, right wing propaganda. Fascism by definition is extreme reactionary right wing politics. Fox is in the bash Democrats, liberals, Acorn, and Obama, and anything that's progressive and liberal business. That may be your politics, and that's OK, it's a free country and right wingers may have some points on some issues, but you're not fooling anyone if you're going to try to pass Fox's constant "promotional" right wing propaganda off as "fair and balanced". Yeah, right...That's like saying only right wingers who support right wing politics and who vote for right wing Republicans are true Americans..Democrats and anyone who doesn't agree with you, Bush, Sarah Palin, Gingrich, Beck, Hannity, etc. should be kicked out of the country for being communist leftists. People should only be taught creationism, and most of what people learn in college about history should be rewritten to make sure everything America has done in the past is written in the best light possible so people don't get "leftist" ideas from studying history. Ignorance is bliss, ain't it..Wave the flag, beat up leftists, war against anything you're told is unAmerican. You're right, right, Right?..

As with somebody else on this blog, I'm wondering why they couldn't get one good sky shot of the 9-12 rally. The picture in the Washington post and CNN's picture doesn't look anything like 60 to 70 thousand.

CNN covers how Karl Roves emails prove he fired David Iglesias for not pursuing false voter fraud charges against ACORN OR the Sibel Edmonds story...AND THEN CNN HAS AN ADVERTIZEMENT THAT FOX DIDN'T COVER IT!!!

Heard a doctor on NPR this morning. She had been on Fox for a 5 minute interview on health care. She said the interviewer brought up death panels 3 times and killing off the elderly 7 times in just the 5 minutes. Fox isn't a news service but a propaganda arm for every group that hates every American that isn't wealthy.

As a mediocre virtuoso, (never could make a living at it) I am usually vindicated within six (6) hours of any given post, as I am exactly six (6) hours ahead of my time. But THIS time I am way under par @ 12 hrs with this recently released, gloating quote:
FOX NEWS RESPONDS TO SANCHEZ
"When asked about their competitors' (Sanchez's) reaction to the ad, a FOX executive laughed and said, "Thank you very much, and a special thanks to Rick Sanchez who has always been a sucker. He's a gift that keeps on giving."

Why was this even a broadcast-worthy piece? Even if Fox was being overbearing with that print ad, did it warrant all this name calling?

I agree that it seems more like Fox was baiting all the other networks to do exactly what was done here : get the story about the protest out there even more than they could possibly do on their own. Even if I thought that Fox did horrid reporting and CNN was the greatest news organization in the world, I would turn the channel after seeing this. This is the kind of petty, in-your-face, name-calling crap that has ruined the very concept "journalism". When your news story is some six-odd minutes of bashing another news agency, something has gone seriously wrong with the news room.

I'm not a Fox "fan", nor am I a CNN, ABC, CBS, MSNBC, or any other network, "fan". News networks shouldn't have fans. They shouldn't be entertaining. THEY SHOULD REPORT NEWS. And we the people should look to several different news agencies to see multiple angles on the stories.